Colour Coding of Shafts

while at it, could somebody please tell me where can i get all the material properties (SMYS & SMTS....etc) of ASTM A709 grade 50T2 from the internet or from any other source.

i know the information given here might be vague or not enough (i am hoping it is enough).

i have engine shafts of red colour coding, as for other information, the bending stress of these shafts is = 268 N / mm2 and the shear stress is 178 N/mm2.

i want to see if this kind of shafts is compatible with ASTM A709 grade 50T2. it has to be at least the same material or stronger.

i hope that is clear.

Hello Primavera,

I have a customer who paint in safety red engine shaft for safety reasons only: he told me he has to paint in red for the identification of 1- Danger 2-Stop

This is a requiremet of ANSI Z53.1 Safety Color Coding for Marking Physical Hazard. I think it became a law and I believe OSHA is talking care of its application or guidelines. In Canada we follow the USA regulation regarding safety color http://www.osha.gov/

Color is as follows (but not limited to)

Yellow: Caution signs, exposed ungarded edges of platforms, pits and wall. Handrail, guradrails, top and bottom treads or stairways where caution is needed.

Pilars, posts or columns which might be struck, fixtures suspended from ceiling or wall which extend into normal operating spaces. Stipes along side of freignt cars, leading plates or runways. Construction equipment, corner marker for storage piles etc.. and so on

Red: Emergency stop bars on hazardous machine such as wire block, rubber mill, flat work ironers etc , stop buttons or electrical switches for emergency stop. Fire prevention equipment, Fire pumps, sirens exit signs sprinkler system etc... Moving parts such as pulleys, shafts ; these parts should have guard painted in red too... and so on

Orange: inside moveable guard or mouveable part in textile plant, Safety starting button.

Inside of transmission guard of gears, pulleys chain, exposed parts as (edges only) pulleys, gears rollers, cutting device, power jaws etc..

The other color are Safety green, safety blue, black and white, safety yellow with safety black stripes( radiations). these colors are also use for pipes identification along with color band and stencil

For ASTM Documents you can get them here: http://www.astm.org/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/index.shtml?E+mystore

Hope this can help...

Respectfully, we do not necessarily follow US colour code in Canada.

ISO is also referenced in our standards.

In Ontario for example the industrial regulations do not specify colours or standards to be followed.

Canada, as a member of WTO we are required to use the ISO standards as our national standards.

Emergency STOPS require red with a yellow background in accordance with ISO 13850 to distuinguis them from operational stops.

We sometimes see EMERGENCY EXIT signs in green in USA and Canada as appears to be common in much of the rest of the world. If we make en EMERGENCY EXIT red and there is a fire the red colour tells me to stop while the EXIT" fonts tell me to go. This is a complete lack of colour harmanisation where a colour can mean one thing in one case and another thing in the next case.

I really like the way you have presented the colour code but to state that this is what is used in Canada is not a pricise statement. I of course may be wrong but if what you state is true can you please forward some regulatory reference for my records.

Thank you.

You see the color coding raise a question: is there an actual standard or regulation nationwide or worldwide? As far as I know using ISO standard is one of the standard code you can follow. Manufacturer can follows any standard ( and there are many out there) they want as long as it respect the general law of the province (or the state or the country) or what his customer wants!

I was looking for such "real"regulation but cannot find anything... hope someone can find something otherwise it means it's only general practice in the industries agreed by the majority ... not real regulation!

In Québec' regulations (I cannot talk for the rest of Canada) I was unable to find anything except general practice like the one I describe... and this come from OSHA in 1979..

I quote: "in order to increase uniformity of safety color coding within and between plants and organization, and to increase spontaneity of action in times of emergency, the safety color code formely used in this standard (Z53.1-1979) and in the Highway Traffic Sign Safety Color Code used by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) have been combined, and the resulting Combined Standard Safety Color Code (CSSCC) colors have been adjusted to give the best feasible color discrimination for observers of both normal and color deficient vision (colorblind)..... As a result the CSSCC tolerance chart are the same used with ANSI, DOT, NHTSA DOT, American National Standard of Piping Systems....

The safety Color Code for Marking Physical Hazard provides an ordely, coordinated standard practice for any plant in any industry. It enable the worker quickly to locate and identify all hazard and safety device and prepare himself for any emergency"

So my understanding of this: it's general practice and common sense not actually a law or regulation! Anyone in USA and Europe can you check if you got regulation for color coding?... really curious about this...

A lot of manufactures will spray paint codes on parts to ID the parts. Especially when like looking parts that have different tolerances.

I am curious: is there any (real or actual) standard in the industry refering to different tolerance using paint as coding?

I work with several standard (ISO, SSPC, ASTM, UL, CGSB, MIL, etc) but I never seen a such standard... my understanding is mostly manufacturer can use whatever color... and it could be different from a manufacturer to another for a same or similar tolerance. Except the use of safety color...

Once again general practice in the industry does not means the proper use of a standard... really curious about this one... I hope I can get that standard number...

Not that I have seen. Up the manufacture what colors they want to use and what coding. Would be nice if their was a standard in some of the industries.

We saw color coding as an indicator of the heat-lot from which the material originated.

Is this on every engine shaft you've seen or just this one.

I've torn into motors before and never saw a color coding on any shaft.

As far as color coding that I am familiar with is with raw metals:

The color coding is different depending on which supplier we get the materails from.

Red - 1/4" thick.

Yellow - 1/8" thick.

Green - 3/16" thick.

Blue - 3/8" thick.

Yellow again - 1/2" thick.

They mark the different sized shaft similarly:

Red - 1-1/4" round.

Yellow - 1" round.

Green - 1-3/16" round.

Blue - 1-7/16" round.

Sheet Metal:

Green - 16 gauge.

Red - 14 gauge.

Yellow - 12 gauge.

Gold - 10 gauge.

Green again - 7 gauge or 3/16" plate.

Red again - 1/4" plate.

So in your case I would guess the Red indicates the size of the shaft. I recommend you contact the manufacturers for the correct answer. We can all speculate what it means. Maybe someone marked your shaft outside of any manufacturers.